


Such Is Space

by selenitebones



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: (the gore isn't bad but i want to be safe and cover my bases), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Don't Try This At Home, F/M, Implied Relationships, Mild Gore, Moral Dilemmas, Stalking, Unhealthy Relationships, let orange say fuck 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:00:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27174187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selenitebones/pseuds/selenitebones
Summary: Cyan really wants to get off this goddamned spaceship. It's hard to function knowing that gaze she feels is coming from the vents.
Relationships: Cyan & Purple (Among Us)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	Such Is Space

**Author's Note:**

> im back with my second bad things happen bingo post!!! it's almost two months later lol. anyways i got inspired to write this two hours ago and here i am posting it. this gets a bit messy at the end but im willing to deal with that later. check out my [tumblr](https://cityreject.tumblr.com) for minecraft youtuber brainrot <3

The lights flickered around Cyan as she tenderly rearranged the wires, small zaps occasionally bouncing off the nylon she wore. A small sigh escaped her lips, and she frowned when her helmet fogged up just the slightest amount. Through all that the ship provided the crew, the temperature had a tendency to be off by a few degrees. The electricity helped, but not by much - there wasn't much that could warm the permeation of space.

It was a wonder they had survived so long in this old ship. With the number of maintenance tasks that were only increasing by the day, it was unspoken knowledge that their time was coming to an end. Yet, the crew persisted; kept their heads high when the reactor began to wail, kept moving from shield breakage to trash heap; gagged into a bin when Red was found, but never turned suspicion to anyone who they were trapped with. 

They would become targets; would they not? Or framed, perhaps. Brown wasn't too happy to be thrown out the airlock, and Cyan could only weep for her friend when she found out her freezing was in vain (Pink had been found the next morning.)

Crewmates were becoming suspicious of each other, but no one dared say a thing. Not a single word of accusation slipped from mouths, but verbal communication wasn't needed in the vacuum of space - sound traveled much slower than light, and all that was needed to understand the fear dripped from expressions was a pair of eyes. 

_Hey_ , the vent hissed to her, and Cyan suppressed the shiver of resentment that arose at that deep tone. _Come closer_ , it beckoned. _I want to taste your skin_. 

Nothing made a helmet fog faster than tears. 

Nothing filled the void of space like someone always there. 

The vents weren't accessible to the normal crewmates. This was what Cyan knew. Someone had stolen what was possibly the only screwdriver in the entire ship (which wasn't too good for a ship that needed constant repairs) and had kept said screwdriver. Someone was in the vents. Someone was watching through the vents. Cyan was being watched. Cyan was not safe. _Cyan was not safe_. 

She bolted up in her bed, shaking, eyes darting across the room to find any hint of just-manifested shadow, daring someone to rise up from the floor. Her breaths shook with each inhale - _in, hold, out, repeat_ \- exhale. The vastness of space seemed just a bit too _real_ when everyone was in close quarters like this - suits off, huddled for warmth, close for the only physical touch they're gotten since out here. Orange and Black were resting their heads on some part of Cyan's body, and she had rested her head on Yellow's in return. Blue's hand dangled dangerously close to the edge of the group of mattresses they'd formed. Cyan reached - just slightly, as to not wake her friends - and lifted Blue's hand. Their skin was so warm - so full of life. 

The one of them who was doing these deeds did not deserve to be called a crewmate. They were an impostor. 

Blue's hand was dangling dangerously close to where an impostor could see. Blue was just that much closer to death. Cyan saved Blue. Blue was safe, now.

There was nothing quite like a sleepless night in the Skeld. 

If Cyan wished to hear more, she might have noticed how the metal of the vent across the hall creaked ever-so-slightly. 

The days blended together in a way they never had before. Wake up, take stock of what had failed during the night - what they needed to fix. Eat breakfast. Split up and go do their assigned tasks. Pray they wouldn't find another friend. Do their tasks. Eat lunch. Pray they wouldn't find another friend. Do their tasks. Eat dinner. Take note of the diminishing food supply. _God_ , if anyone was found cleaved in half once more -

Cyan survived electrical several times, but she was never brave enough to enter navigation unprompted. No one went to navigation. everyone preferred to stay in admin, security, or cafeteria. At least, if the reactor failed, there would always be people able to diffuse a nuclear situation in time. 

No one liked to be around navigation and the room's two vents. 

Plotting the course didn't take much time, but the settling shift of metal felt like a hundred years. 

"What do you want?" She shook, voice barely avoiding breaking - was it that she couldn't look away from her download, or simply did not want to? 

The metal distortion was too good of a voice filter. _I want you_. No one on the ship was that smooth - no one after Brown, anyway. It was impossible to trace their voice or actions. It was impossible to look away from this download. It was impossible. Never. No. 

"Why are you doing this?"

_Someone has to_. 

This answer was problematic in itself, but Cyan found herself finished with the download. She tore herself away from the screen - eyes closed far too tightly for someone who was supposed to have a normal trip to navigation.

White and Lime stopped the oxygen from running out. Green flung all the trash into space. Purple and Yellow went to clear asteroids. Orange broke down in relief after coming out of electrical in one piece after completing all four tasks that had all been assigned to him. Cyan counted down nervously as each crewmate walked in the door, praying that everyone would show up on time. They had to show up on time. 

Black didn't show up on time. As a matter of fact, Black didn't show up at all. 

Black was last seen watching the cameras. 

Yellow screamed away his grief as he wiped gore off the desktop monitor. 

"Does it make you happy?" Cyan asked the next day, after yet another sleepless night drenched in paranoia. 

For once, the impostor did not have a response. 

Staring out into space was the best way to waste time. 

There was a way to rig the asteroid-blasters to turn the ship into a fun game, but that required a load of recalibration that - quite frankly - was not safe. It was reluctantly decided against. Most had conversations or made up games to be played on the ship. 

Cyan would sit quietly and lose herself in the patterns of the stars. 

She overheard a conversation, once. 

"You saw me do these. I need to see that you can do them."

"I can't." 

"I showed you how to do this."

"I won't."

"Why not?"

" _I'm sorry_."

The sound of blood spatter against the controls of the weapons area was drowned out by the scream that was wrenched from Cyan's throat immediately after. 

Cyan, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow, Purple, and Lime remained. 

Cyan slept in the same room with a murderer. 

Cyan slept with the knowledge that she might have been able to prevent this. 

The cold of space never seemed that far away, anymore. 

_You've been quiet_ , the vent whispered in shields one day.

"I don't know what to say," Cyan answered. She really wasn't sure - there was so little sleep that she was able to catch that she could barely keep her part of the ship running. The fatal ship failures were happening much more, these days. Cyan was shaky, fatigued - everyone was terrified out of their minds. 

The lights went out. The vent opened.

Cyan closed her eyes. 

A hand trailed up her arm. "Are you scared?" She heard a voice ask in a low whisper. She ducked her head; prayed harder than she ever had before.

"I'm scared of death," she said. "I'm not scared of you."

_I am scared of you. I am scared of what you can do. You've remorselessly killed. You're taking us all out one by one. I'm scared that I'll be the last to go. I'm scared to know who you are. I'm scared of what it will feel like. I'm scared of the pain. I'm scared of the sleep. I'm scared of how you move in the vents. I'm scared of how you know where we are. I'm scared of how I never know where you are. I'm scared I can't keep track of you. I'm scared you'll sneak up on me someday. I'm scared that you'll show me the end._

"I pity you," the impostor said. "We are the exact same being."

Cyan didn't open her eyes until long after the vent shut and the lights turned back on. 

Purple was the strongest of the group. He was the one to reassure anyone when the stress got to them - was the one to give the best hugs and hold those in his arms who needed it. Everyone returned to the sleeping quarters that night, they were surprised to see Purple the one broken down. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Lime tried frantically, one arm around Purple's shoulders and a hand on his. "I'm sorry; I wasn't thinking. I'm so, so, sorry."

A debrief revealed the start of analyzing a lab sample had turned to panic at a silhouette, the scramble for safety, and a very confused Lime who had just wanted to do his weekly scan. 

Everyone hugged Purple, this time - even if one of them was the exact one that Purple needed to fear. 

"Green did trash," Orange announced the next day. "Lime did the medbay scan today. Purple and I did asteroids. Blue and Yellow have been sticking with each other throughout this entire ordeal. Cyan's been doing every nav task known to man. Purple - and _all_ of us at some point - have had a fucking _breakdown_ because we can't figure out who's killing us."

The discussion was a good idea, but there was no consensus reached. 

When the lights went off again, Cyan sobbed in comms. The arms that wrapped around her were as cold as ice. 

"Do you ever get scared you'll be caught?" She asked. "Do you ever regret anything? Did you ever believe things could be different?" She cried, ignoring the silence of the halls around her. She couldn't walk without becoming dizzy anymore. She could barely even move without exhaustion setting in. Who cares if she was framed, now - death almost seemed like a comfort in comparison to living in horror any longer. 

"I messed up my timing," the impostor scoffed - a rough, horrible sound that made Cyan's stomach turn. "Blue caught me with Yellow. I turned off the lights to prevent them from finding that I cut the wires in O2. You'll all be dead by morning."

A harsh sob forced it's way out of Cyan's mouth. "I'll land the ship. I won't let you kill us, you bastard."

"Maybe you will."

She looked up. The dark helmet of Purple stared down at her. 

"How'd you do it?"

"I'm a good actor," Purple whispered. Cyan didn't know if the hug he gave her was forming her or destroying her as one. 

"You're a sick man, you realize," she agonized. "Preying on people through the vents, always keeping them on the lookout for you - manipulating everything to be your way. And you don't care?" If Cyan was paying attention, she may have realized how Purple's body shook for just one second. 

Even as her eyes filled with tears, she stared up at his face with all the rage she could muster. "I'll have you thrown out the airlock. Blue will back me up. You won't be taking any more lives on this ship."

Purple's helmet was too opaque to see through, but Cyan didn't think she wanted to see his pathetic face ever again.

"I wish you the best of luck," he retracted his arms from Cyan's body.

She was alone once more, but she would be with her crew soon. 

The communications room was filled with small beeps and strained functioning of outdated machinery. If Cyan focused, she thought that she may be able to smell the bloodstains that weren't able to be completely cleaned. The rough surface of the desk was nothing compared to the landing they'd be making later, and she needed to be making preparations. A nearby planet needed to be found; something that was habitable. Something that could _heal_.

First was plotting a course. 

Navigation, it was.


End file.
